Music
Intent
At Holland House Infant School and Nursery, we want Music to be a subject that gives our children the freedom to express themselves in a way that gives them enjoyment and personal fulfilment. We want children to acquire the skills and knowledge of music in a systematic was so that each child is able to produce results that demonstrate their achievements. We want music to offer lots of practical experiences that excite children and give them confidence in their own creativity and use of their imagination. Our child led approach enables children to develop self confidence in the way that they explore the creative world. We understand that music has the capacity to support children‘s emotional wellbeing and consider this as an important part of our curriculum.
We aim to develop our values of resilience, respect and appreciation through our Music curriculum. We want our children to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence to enable them to enjoy exploring, experimenting and communicating through Music. We want pupils to become absorbed in the process of creating without fear of failure or making mistakes. We aim to develop their vocabulary to express their response to the work of musicians and their understanding that music is valued and appreciated by people of all ages.
Implementation
The music curriculum is planned to enable children to experience using a range of techniques and equipment. We utilise the Charanga music scheme to ensure that the objectives of the National Curriculum are taught through high quality music lessons.
Charanga Musical School Units of Work enable children to understand musical concepts through a repetition-based approach to learning. Learning about the same musical concept through different musical activities enables a more secure, deeper learning and mastery of musical skills
Musical teaching and learning is not neat or linear. The strands of musical learning are part of the learning spiral. Over time, children can both develop new musical skills and concepts, and re-visit established musical skills and concepts. Repeating a musical skill doesn’t necessarily mean their progress is slowing down or their development is moving backwards! It's just shifting within the spiral. Mastery means both a deeper understanding of musical skills and concepts and learning something new.
Skills and the related vocabulary are taught during directed tasks, usually in the context of producing a finished piece of work. Skills and techniques are revisited throughout the EYFS and KS1 to enable children to consolidate and make progress. Many musical activities are linked to topics, enabling children to understand art as a way of communicating ideas and exploring a subject. This enables pupils to make clear links between the subjects they are learning. We give children the opportunity to respond to, and talk about the work of famous musicians, making links between different pieces of work. This develops children’s understanding of the importance of music as a stimulus for exploration of subjects and techniques. Children will have the opportunity to work with a range of practising musicians during Arts Weeks and special events.
All musical learning in this scheme is built around the Interrelated Dimensions of Music: pulse, rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture, structure and notation. These dimensions are at the centre of all the learning.
From Reception to Year 2, the learning consists of six half-termly Units of Work. The final unit in each year - Reflect, Rewind and Replay - allows for revision and more extension activities.
Impact
As a result of our music curriculum we create a love of learning which allows all children to achieve their personal best. This gives the pupils the creative skills to express themselves and communicate with the aesthetics of the world around them. Th repetition of skills through our spiral curriculum ensures that children have a good understanding of the knowledge and skills which are embedded.
Adaptation
It is important that all children have equal opportunity to achieve in a variety of activities regardless of ability. As with any other subject, activities are organised in such a way that children can carry out tasks at their own level and then improve on this level of achievement.
Creative curriculum opportunities
Where possible music will be included within other subject areas and topics taught. Music can be a powerful tool to enable pupils to illustrate what they have learned and to help them remember their learning. Music can support every subject e.g. singing times tables on to support the learning and recall of multiplication facts. Music is also taught through themed weeks e.g. Arts Week, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Reading around the Curriculum. Such approaches and activities provide an ideal opportunity for children to apply the knowledge and skills learnt in the weekly music lesson to more open-ended investigative tasks thus developing their confidence and enjoyment of Music.
SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural)
Music contributes to our pupils SMSC development particularly through:
Spiritual
- Explore emotions through music
- Reflect on different kinds of music
- Explore creativity in composing
- Use imagination in group work, songwriting and composing
- Explore collective thinking in group music making
- Seek to understand how music reflects the beliefs of others
- Compose music which explores your beliefs
Moral
- Encourage respect for others
- Encourage respect for a whole range of music
- Encourage respect for instruments
- Encourage respect for the music rooms/practice rooms
- Explore moral issues through a range of listening, performance or composition Social
- Encourage class/group collaboration on musical projects
- Create a sense of community
- Celebrate successes, both in and out of school
- Interact with the community through occasional comments, events or visits
Cultural
- Respect diversity in music
- Respect the musical heritage of different cultures - learn to play the music of other cultures
- Gain an understanding of British Musical Heritage (classical, folk and popular)
Educational Visits Educational visits are organised in music to enhance the curriculum where appropriate. Music professionals are invited into school to work with the pupils. Having specialists into school to work with pupils greatly enhances the curriculum.